Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Simeon Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (80 Pitches, 47 Strikes, 58.8%)
Home Runs: Brooks Lee (16), Royce Lewis (13)
Top 3 WPA: Lee (.365), Lewis (.170), Pierson Ohl (.095)
Win Probability Chart (Via FanGraphs):
If you still needed proof that the Guardians simply play a better brand of baseball than anything the Twins could possibly approximate, this series provided it. Guardians pitchers know exactly what Twins hitters are trying to do and countered them perfectly, and Guardians hitters are similarly inside the heads of Twins pitchers. It helps that they are the hottest team in baseball and about to complete one of the greatest division comebacks in recent memory.
Well, not so fast.
The Twins threw their hottest pitcher, Simeon Woods Richardson, at them today. That immediately went south, like (seemingly) everything these days. Steven Kwan got a fastball to his liking and smoked it 373 feet to begin the game 1-0. George Valera, who among Guardians fans ranked in the Jose Miranda/Edouard Julien space in terms of being just a massive, useless bust that wouldn’t amount to anything just a few months ago, was hitting second, and walked. He reached third on a Kyle Manzardo single; Bo Naylor hit a sacrifice fly to bring him home and double the lead. Classic Guardians.
Twins hitters had to contend with Joey Cantillo, who struck out nine the last time he faced them. During that game, Cantillo was actually rocked pretty hard, before settling in and reverting back to dominance. He looked good again today, outside of allowing a bloop double to Byron Buxton and a subsequent RBI single to Kody Clemens in the third.
Woods Richardson kept the Guardians off the board the rest of the way, and in the sixth (following a double from Luke Keaschall), Brooks Lee launched a 411-foot home run to flip the game and give the Twins the lead. This came after Guardians manager Stephen Vogt chose to take out his lefty, Erik Sabrowski, to flip Lee to his “weaker” side with Matt Festa. It’s weird when a strategy backfires against Cleveland. They always seem to have a horseshoe handy. This time, they got kicked.
Strategy backfired again for Vogt in the seventh. Following a Clemens squibber and another infield single from Austin Martin, Royce Lewis was called upon to hit for Trevor Larnach against lefty Tim Herrin with two outs. Vogt called for his setup man, Hunter Gaddis, and Lewis made him pay, jumping all over the fourth straight slider of the at-bat and launching it 402 feet to extend the lead to 6-2. Lewis seemed pretty pumped:
Kody Funderburk, Pierson Ohl, Cole Sands and Travis Adams pitched scoreless frames to seal the win.
Other tidbits from this game:
Remember when Ron Gardenhire batted Nick Punto second?
I’ve been trying to find the logic behind the Guardians insisting on hitting their worst hitters in the number two spot in the lineup. Will Brennan and Amed Rosario have been assigned this duty in the past, and during this series, we’ve seen Daniel Schneeman and the aforementioned Valera in that spot. My theory on why teams like the Guardians and Brewers have done so well lately is that their analytics have gotten so advanced that they’ve moved past the need for some of them and are able to exploit other teams’ over-reliance on said analytics. Perhaps there is an element of human psychology in putting a crappy hitter between Kwan and José Ramírez? Here are my best guesses:
A bad hitter is 100% okay with giving himself up, either by sacrificing himself or by taking pitches without being concerned about falling behind in the count. That gives Kwan a couple of chances to steal a base if needed.
Teams that game plan to focus entirely on Kwan and Ramírez might take the number two hitter for granted, especially if he has crappy numbers. The hitter prepares as if that is the case and waits for a fat pitch he can swing out of his shoes at. If he doesn’t get it, it’s no big deal; no one expects him to do anything anyway. How many clutch home runs have we seen the Quad-A Brennan hit over the years? Far too many.
The ability to pinch-hit in the later innings is there. Jhonkensy Noel is always lurking, and being able to pinch-hit him late in the game has proven to be a winning formula. Not having to take a good player out in order to do so is the icing on the cake.
Is Ryan Fitzgerald making a case for a role next year?
Fitzgerald famously took forever to make his major-league debut, and even when the Twins brought him up after the fire sale, he wasn’t playing much. But he has made the most out of limited opportunities, played decent defense, hit a few nice homers and has an .800-plus OPS to show for it.
Brooks Lee certainly has more present upside, but the Twins aren’t long on guys who can play competently at third, short and second and who possess a bat that isn’t a pool noodle. Then again, if Lee doesn’t amount to anything, maybe FItzgerald is one of those guys who figures something out after they turn 30. Maybe not José Bautista style, but maybe he can be a poor man’s Scott Brosius?
SWR: 2026 Ace of Staff?
Stay with me here: If Joe Ryan and Pablo López are traded away, and Bailey Ober requires surgery to fix a hip labrum or something, I don’t think the Twins have a starter more accustomed to getting big-league hitters out than Woods Richardson. His splitter is still new, and might get better. On that note, the Guardians really didn’t swing at his splitter at all, and still couldn’t score in innings two through five.
Of course, the start against New York last week lingers in our minds and paints the righty in a better light, but he threw by far the best out of the starters against Cleveland, a team that cannot be denied. He’s just been good since his recall (outside of that crazy parasite that sidelined him in August). The splitter plays, and with a newfound ability to miss bats, he might be a breakout candidate for 2026.
Edouard Julien: Not that Bad?
Stay with me again: Julien hasn’t been particularly impressive, but he is striking out less than he ever has, his BABIP is the lowest of his career, and he hasn’t seemed as overmatched as he looked earlier in the year. His batted-ball metrics indicate more of an average hitter than the black hole his surface-level stats would imply. He had competitive at-bats today. Maybe learning the league a little more has had an impact on a guy who does tend to get down on himself. If he is a .230/.330/.420 guy, that isn’t the worst player to have at the end of your bench. I also think a confident Julien can act as something of a mascot for the team, a little like Bartolo Colón or José Iglesias.
What’s Next: The Twins are off Monday, before heading to Arlington, Texas to play the fading Rangers. Zebby Matthews (4-6, 5.97 ERA) takes the ball. He was absolutely awful his last time out against the Yankees. Whether he was tipping pitches is irrelevant, because he was throwing batting practice against a New York team eager to make amends after getting shut out the night before. The Rangers were showing some life in August, but are now losers of six in a row and all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Their starter hasn’t yet been announced.
Postgame Interviews:
Coming soon
Bullpen Usage Chart:
WED
THU
FRI
SAT 1
SAT2
SUN
TOT
Abel
0
0
0
0
71
0
71
Sands
15
0
25
0
0
20
60
Hatch
0
0
0
52
0
0
52
Funderburk
10
0
20
0
0
14
44
Adams
14
0
0
0
0
14
28
Cabrera
23
0
0
0
0
0
23
Ohl
13
0
0
0
0
9
22
Laweryson
0
0
20
0
0
0
20
Tonkin
0
0
17
0
0
0
17